The couple rushed Blossom to Shrewsbury Hospital where doctors gave her a CT scan before transferring her to Birmingham's Children Hospital.

Mrs Burton said: 'At this point the doctors thought it could be a virus but a MRI scan confirmed it was a stroke. We couldn't believe it when we were told.

'You just don't think a child of two will suffer a stroke.'

Mrs Burton, who has given up her job at a homeless charity to care for Blossom, added: 'For the first week her voice was very slurred and her left side was floppy.

'She couldn't sit up and we could only feed her yoghurt because her throat couldn't swallow solid food.

'A week after we were told she would not walk again she started making tiny flexing movements with her left hand.

'It wasn't much but enough to know she was getting better.'

Against the odds: Blossom is now back home with her family

The youngster underwent a month's intensive physiotherapy and she was eventually able to walk with the help of a miniature zimmer frame.

Now she is back home with her family and sister, Olivia, 10, at their home in Shrewsbury.

Blossom is expected to make a full recovery but may need surgery because a growth spurt means her left arm and leg are now 1cm shorter than her right limbs.

Helen said: 'While she was paralysed her right arm and leg grew so she is a bit lop-sided but we have to see whether surgery is needed to correct this.

'Her right arm is now in plaster to let her left arm catch up with it.

'She can walk by herself but she waddles and will need to take aspirin every day for the rest of her life to stop her blood clotting.'

Joe Korner, Director of Communications at The Stroke Association said: 'In childhood stroke patients it is common to find narrowing of blood vessels which carry blood to the brain, but the cause of this narrowing, despite tests, is often not found.

'Rarely this narrowing may be associated with a previous chickenpox infection.'

The youngster endures six hours of physiotherapy every day.

Doctors began her treatment by putting a squash ball in her hand and encouraging her to squeeze it to build up her strength.

Richard said: 'It has been a long, slow process to get Blossom physically strong enough to support herself.

'The physiotherapist and occupational therapist started Blossom on an hour's therapy a day.

'They would encourage her to stretch her legs and arms and stimulate some muscle movement by asking her squeeze balls and even tin foil.

'Now she's back home we make her stretch her limbs every two hours for ten minutes each limb.

'We take her swimming for 30 minutes each day and walks wherever she can.

'We even encourage her to cook because the motion of using a spoon to mix the ingredients works the muscles and the nerves which were damaged in the stroke.

'It is a gruelling process for a little girl and can take up to six hours but we have to keep it up.'

The couple are now saving up for an ultrasound machine which delivers deep electrical pulses to the muscles.

They are also considering a more controversial treatment which will involve liquid botox being injected into her muscles.

Richard said: 'We want to try the other therapies first before we resort to botox injections.

'The botox would totally relax the muscle in her leg and arm and allow the muscle to grow and develop like it did before the stroke.'

Dr Shakti Agrawal, a neurology consultant at Birmingham Childrens' Hospital who treated Blossom, said her recovery was 'remarkable'.

He said: 'Blossom's recovery is certainly remarkable.

'The damage to her brain was like that of an 80-year-old stroke patient and she wasn't showing signs of walking again.

'Because of her age, her brain is much more able to repair itself compared to an adult so the chance of a recurrence is minimal.

'It is rare for children of Blossom's age to suffer strokes like this.

'No one really knows why the anti-bodies attack the blood vessels after chicken pox but lots more study is being done.